This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out.

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Do you live in one of the most dangerous cities in California?

We all watch the news and see reports on Facebook of the latest crimes that happen in our hometowns. But it can be hard to tell at a big picture level how dangerous our town actually is.

No one wants to feel unsafe, and statistically speaking, odds are that where you live is most likely relatively safe. In order to help the good people of California — and anyone looking to move to California — know just how close they are to danger, we took data from the annual FBI report and did some serious analysis.

The data shows that these ten cities are currently the most dangerous in the Golden State:

Why did Emeryville take the top spot? For the answer to this question and a detailed explanation of the data and analysis we used in creating this ranking, read on. Or learn more about the safest places in California.

In order to make the analysis as apples to apples as possible, we only considered cities over 5,000 in population. That left us with 418 cities in California.

We then ranked each city from 1 to 418 for the two criteria with a #1 ranking being the most dangerous for the particular criteria.

Next, we averaged the two rankings into one “Dangerous Index”.

Finally, we ranked every city on the “Dangerous Index” with the lowest index being the most dangerous in California — Emeryville. Read on for a detailed look at the 10 most dangerous cities in California.

Here’s a visualization of the criteria:

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Read on for a detailed look at the 10 most dangerous cities in California.

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1. Emeryville

Population: 12,060Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,094Property Crimes Per 100k: 14,270
It will probably surprise most people to see Emeryville as the most dangerous city in California. However, this is the second year in a row it occupied the top spot in our analysis.

North of Oakland, east of San Francisco, and home to Pixar Studios, Emeryville is one of the smallest city on this list.

Residents face crazy high rates of property crime, with a 1 in 7.0 chance of being the victim of one (that’s 9 times higher than in Los Angeles).

Luckily, violent crime has fallen by 37% between 2014-16, but there’s still an unsettling 1 in 91 chance of being the victim of violence here.

2. Red Bluff

Population: 14,138Rank Last Year: 3 (Up 1)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,124Property Crimes Per 100k: 7,759
Red Bluff’s motto might tout that the city is “a great place to live,” but its status as the 2nd most dangerous city in California might stain that saying a bit.

Located 125 miles north of Sacramento, Red bluff residents have a 1 in 12.9 chance of being the victim of a property crime every year.

Violent crime has also gone up nearly 30% between 2014-16, with a higher than 1 in 88 chance of being the victim of violence.

7. Eureka

Population: 26,981Rank Last Year: 20 (Up 13)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 945Property Crimes Per 100k: 5,637
Eureka ranks highly for the occurrence of crime. In particular, violent crime rates in Eureka stick out for being the 14th worst in California.

There were 255 violent crimes in Eureka, but that’s down from earlier in the decade.

A City Data user says, “I dO NOT recommend Eureka for a single person looking to get out there and have fun and meet people.” Probably because going out there leads to crime.

8. Clearlake

Source: Public domain

Population: 15,165Rank Last Year: 21 (Up 13)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 982Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,464
Clearlake ranks as the 8th most dangerous city in California.

Over 15,165 people jam pack Clearlake which must contribute to its high level of violent crime (22nd highest overall). Property crime is a bit less of an issue placing 13th overall.

10. San Bernardino

Population: 217,303Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 6)Violent Crimes Per 100k: 1,324Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,223
While San Bernardino has seen crime become a problem over the last decade, it improved its numbers year of year to finish in 10th.

A stubbornly high violent crime rate continues to be an issue and prevent it from falling out of the top ten this year.

Locking It All Up In California

The latest FBI crime data shows that Emeryville ranks as the most dangerous city in California for 2018.

However, there will be new data coming out later this year. At that point we can revisit Emeryville’s status — that is if they haven’t beaten us all up already.

13 thoughts on “These Are The 10 Most Dangerous Cities In California For 2018”

Stockton is the most horrible city I have ever been to, we got robbed, stole everything we had, and burned the moving trucks, the city is full of bastards. Don’t ever go there, it is a deadly, filthy, hell hole.

This list is Garbage. I have lived in a few of these cities and there is no way that this list is accurate. Here is a better top 5 list.

Oakland
Los Angeles
Stockton
San Francisco
Victorville

Not necessarily in that order for all of them but… Grass Valley? REALLY? The Title of this article is These Are The 10 Most Dangerous Cities In California For 2017 and is clearly Clickbait! ALL of us who read it and this comment have all wasted our time.

These are “per capita” numbers. Big Bear Lake’s full-time population is 5,209 but it’s a resort town and its weekend and holiday population can be over 100,000. So the numbers are obviously skewed and proves that this article has a very flawed formula.

This article is bull I live in Red Bluff, Ca nothing happens in Red Bluff. This town is so dead and lifeless that you can hear the crickets chirping at night. So go f yourself. You’re probably some snot nose liberal that’s got his/her thumb up their..

Have you ever been to Carson, South Gate, Stockton, Modesto, Oakland, and other notorious places? Of course not, because you listed the sleepy community of Grass Valley on this list. Do you have any idea what Grass Valley is like? Seriously, this list is absolute trash you and have to stop posting this list. It’s completely flawed and is lying directly to the reader’s faces.